watching construction via the net?

[Les]

I was wondering if anyone knows of a good (and reasonably priced) system for cameras that you can set up to watch construction on your house while you're at work. I'd like to have at least 2 cameras that I can place in key areas of the house, so that I can check in from time to time from my office. Has anyone done this that can share experience?

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[Bob]

cameras that you can set up to watch construction on your house while you're at work. I'd like to have at least 2 cameras that I can place in key areas of the house, so that I can check in from time to time from my office.

I plan on doing the same thing.

Take a look at

I have one of these and it seems pretty good for the price. I have not set it up yet since I haven't organized the internet service yet.

Bob

[Glenn]

I wonder what the mortality rate of the cameras would be. 2 x 12 joists falling on them, ladders falling on them, trash bags over them to 'protect' them, hammers that slipped out of the guys hand and flew wild?

I was good enough that I didn't care who watched me but I believe I would draw the line on cameras watching me scratch my butt occasionally.

[dpb]

...

That'd pretty much be my guess/reaction, too... :)

Some things are pretty much guaranteed to p-o somebody and one really shouldn't go out of one's way to make an enemy of one's gc. Not conducive to a productive relationship, _particularly_ if done w/o notification/permission/acknowledgement of the gc.

[Kickstart]

God ya gotta love some of these guys, I suppose the only reason he thought of doing this is because his boss has a camera on him to keep his production up.

kickstart

[Glenn]

That's my point. If your gc is good he will do you a nice job but if you really pee him off, believe me, there are a 100 ways he can screw you and you will never even know the difference.

[frippletoot]

IMO you can expect the workers to destroy the cameras so you might want to think about disclosing they are there, due to recording laws that might require it, and have a clause that vandalism or theft are cause for immediate dismissal, and termination of the contract, with the only pay due them at the point of termination being for work already correctly done. If you can find a contractor willign to work under that, more power to ya. I don't blame you for wantign to keep an eye on things. A lot of shortcuts are going on, and can be covered over quickly. Video of the work in progress would give you documentation that it was done wrong even if you could not be there all day to catch it. I have certainly worked in conditions where I'd have resented a camera and suspected there were cameras, but I would never disable it. I do my job regardless if anyone's watching. And if they want to watch me scratch my ass, that's their problem. Good luck with this.

[dpb]

Glenn wrote: ...

Yep, and if he's not, having a camera around to look in on every so often isn't going to do a lot to improve his performance.

I can understand OP's idea was probably innocent enough, but it doesn't relate well to reality. One wonders whether he would feel kindly towards his employer if they were to announce the starting of keystroke monitoring (recognizing that there are places which do it, I'm presuming he's not in such a line of work).

[HockeyFan]

You guys are reading way too much into it. I'll break it down for you:

I'm the GC. I'm an owner builder. I want to watch certain aspects of what some subcontractors do, not to watch them, but to watch my house being built. I have a right to do this. I'm the one paying the bill, and the guys know up front that I'm doing it, and if they don't like it, they don't have to take the job. Damn. I'm not wanting to spy on anyone. I just want to see the place slowly go up. And it's not like I want to watch every day. There's just some stuff that I can't be on-site for and so I want a camera there to watch. For some subcontractor work, I'll be onsite. Other stuff, I wont be, and in fact, if I see something going wrong, or if I see the guys having trouble with something, I want to be able to call and save them the effort. What's wrong with that?

ANd bottom l> Glenn wrote:

[Bob]

Mine will be up on a pole outside the house connected via wireless DSL internet. Pretty safe from accidents. Safety from vandalism depends on the neighborhood, in my case I feel pretty confident.

To answer a bunch of the other posts -- my general contractor welcomes this idea. It is a way for him to monitor the site while he is not there. (Is someone making off with lumber, tools, supplies?) He has as much to loose as I do as the materials are his responsibility, not mine, during the construction process. This is not a way for me to check up on the general contrctor. I consider him mostly a partner in this enterprise or I woudn't have hired him.

If any subcontractor was caught vandalizing the camera he knows he would be cutting into his livelyhood as the general contractor would drop him like a hot rock.

Bob

[Glenn]

My last comment on it. We are beating the dead horse now.

I wouldn't care if he spent his whole time on the job. I wouldn't care if he hired his own flunky to watch it and count nails.

I feel a video camera would be *insulting* and would turn down the job I always had a waiting list of 3 to 6 months. I would feel he was looking for something to sue down the road for something that doesn't mean a hill of beans. Simple matter of trust. If he don't trust me, I sure as hell wouldn't trust him. Fini

[HockeyFan]

[PPS]

The new Panasonic BL-MS103A looks promising (but it costs nearly a grand.)

Comes with 3 color cameras (up to 8 can be installed), Wireless Camera Monitoring System and remote. Images can be recorded on a SD memory card. Can view *and control* cameras by web browser or a compatible cell phone (most are) which means you can check from anywhere, with or without a laptop. Cameras are wireless. Has "Automatic Network Configuration" (yea, sure, you betcha).

Here's one source:

[crhras]

---------------------------------------------------------------------- I think your idea is great. I actually wanted to extend it a bit but that is another story. Two questions...

Do you have electric service at the site yet or does this system have to run without service ?

What kind of connectivity do you have ? Phone ? DSL ? Cable ? Satellite ?

[crhras]

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Regarding the camera it is pretty simple to choose one. You just have to answer a few questions :

- What resolution do you need

- What range do you need

- Will you be viewing at night

- Will the camera be stationary or will it be movable

- Do you need to remotely control the camera

[Art]

This is usenet. Grow a thicker skin and learn to ignore posts. You cannot control others replies, good, bad or otherwise.

[Woodenhead]

[Bob]

I already have a day job. The construction site is 25 miles away. The GC has multiple jobs going at sites even more dispersed. With an on-site camera the site can be monitored in a few seconds w/o driving an hour to get to it.

Of course both the GC and I will go to the site quite often and there are things that a quick look at the web-cam won't help with but if you are just wondering if a certain sub contractor showed up yet or if the stack of lumber is still there or if a delivery has been made, etc. etc. the camera can make life simpler.

Also, the camera has a motion detector that can be activated at night.

Bob